A Powerful Non-Event Concludes

Apparently, hell froze over at 2:05 PM Eastern on Thursday, when the Occupy Washington Democrats who call themselves the people’s representatives walked out of the House chamber to refresh their deodorant and head home to their districts for two weeks of vacation. Posing for photo-ops at the conclusion of their arduous 25-hour struggle to end “gun violence,” they concluded their much-ballyhooed and little watched sequel to Making Sense of the Sixties by comparing their demand for a vote on a bill that they knew wouldn’t pass to the Civil Rights Movement.

Throughout the 25 hours, C-SPAN did its best to disguise itself as Comedy Central, providing “coverage” of this granola-enriched non-event via the cellphones of Democratic congresspersons who clearly failed Cinematography 101 in film school. C-SPAN had to settle for these aspiring Emmy winners (you never know) because every time House Speaker Paul Ryan dismisses the House, the C-SPAN cameras automatically fade to black.

After adjourning the House for two weeks, Speaker Ryan correctly suggested in a press conference that the Preening Sitsters were merely engaging in a “publicity stunt” and campaigning for themselves. He then went on to opine that this pathetic incense-and-peppermints unshaved-armpit throwback was actually a threat to the very democratic process in this, the “world’s oldest democracy.” That’s a bit of an exaggeration. And besides, if that were case, why not deploy the Sergeant at Arms to restore order? These aging hippies had no more right to disrupt the people's business in Washington than Madison, Wisconsin's 18-year-old thugette Genele Laird had a right to threaten a Taco Bell employee with a knife, resist arrest, and expect not to be tackled and tased by police.

C-SPAN operates its cameras in the House because the Congress allows it to do so, voting each year to establish the rules. If the GOP majority had any guts, it would turn off C-SPAN’s cameras for good.

The real threats to the “democratic process” are politicians and their voters who think that the federal bureaucrats who hamfistedly maintain the “No-Fly List” will keep disaffected Muslims from asking “What Would Muhammad Do?” in the land of the infidel and acting accordingly.